The "Back in my day" thread.

[ID Bronco]

Growing up in Enoch, we used to shoot prairie dogs from our back porch, gun racks in pickup trucks displaying rifles for everyone to see, high school parking lot had a lot of trucks with guns on racks and probably unlocked. We still have the muzzleloaders, truck and people in this photo.

View attachment 155692

This looks like what we had, a 63 gmc pickup with a canvas snap on cover over the bed. We would lay on the foam as in the picture and ride from Idaho Falls to Panguitch Utah in the back laying down while my parents sat up front with the windows cracked for air. It got HOT under that cover, and my brother and I just duked it out all the way there with no one to save us. Pound on the back window if you had to pee, but it better be an emergency pee.

Looking back I'm sure that canvas and snaps were safety enough.

 

[Herzog]

Same. I wish I did though!

Give it time...

 

[ID Bronco]

I don’t qualify for this thread 😂

I'm pretty convinced I was born one Century too late.

 

[JeeperG]

This looks like what we had, a 63 gmc pickup with a canvas snap on cover over the bed. We would lay on the foam as in the picture and ride from Idaho Falls to Panguitch Utah in the back laying down while my parents sat up front with the windows cracked for air. It got HOT under that cover, and my brother and I just duked it out all the way there with no one to save us. Pound on the back window if you had to pee, but it better be an emergency pee.

Looking back I'm sure that canvas and snaps were safety enough.

Yeah we did the same in the back of dad's 59 which we also still have. From Enoch to Ft. Bridger for the rendezvous. Tipi poles on the rack, 3 or 4 of us under a blue tarp in the back, that bedside wood wasn't there then.

 

[jeeper]

 

[Pile of parts]

Yeah we did the same in the back of dad's 59 which we also still have. From Enoch to Ft. Bridger for the rendezvous. Tipi poles on the rack, 3 or 4 of us under a blue tarp in the back, that bedside wood wasn't there then.
View attachment 155700

Yep, Riverton, UT to Flaming Gorge/Manilla in the back of a pickup, relaxing on lawn chairs that folded all the way out, eating fritos and bean dip. We were riding in style.

 

[Pile of parts]

Back in my day, I wore pants like this... I'm getting old enough that it probably won't be long until I'm shopping for some just like them.🤣 This is a picture of me, my brothers and two cousins. Probably from a family reunion in Summit, UT. My cousin just happened to send it to me today so I thought it was appropriate to post here. Oh, and @xj_nate we didn't have cell phones but I was holding my dad's walkie talkie in this picture and my cousins were impressed.😉

 

[glockman]

Here's the odd thing about this thread to me. I'm 44. I think anyone 40ish to 70ish had a pretty similar childhood experience. 25 to 39 year olds have had a completely different life experience than us just slightly older but mostly pre Internet and video games.

 

[TRD270]

I'm pretty convinced I was born one Century too late.

I say this all the time, but I'd settle for a few decades.

 

[Hickey]

Back in my day we used to pile the whole family into the cab of a 1976 F-150. There were 5 kids and two adults in a regular cab. Later on Dad bought a shell for the truck and tossed a 4x8 sheet of plywood with some green shag carpet stapled to it and called it a “carpet kit”. The kids all rode in the back on that luxurious carpet all the way to Rupert, Idaho to go skiing with my cousins on the Snake River. It was all done at 55 MPH, too.

 

[RockChucker]

Here's the odd thing about this thread to me. I'm 44. I think anyone 40ish to 70ish had a pretty similar childhood experience. 25 to 39 year olds have had a completely different life experience than us just slightly older but mostly pre Internet and video games.

I'm in that younger group, but my childhood was full of tree forts, walking to school *gasp* by our selves *gasp* all the time, biking in the dirt fields around our house etc. We never had video games and dial up innnernet was all my folks had until 2012.

 

[JeeperG]

Bunch of AARP members up in here.

 

[DAA]

Back in my day we used to pile the whole family into the cab of a 1976 F-150. There were 5 kids and two adults in a regular cab. Later on Dad bought a shell for the truck and tossed a 4x8 sheet of plywood with some green shag carpet stapled to it and called it a “carpet kit”. The kids all rode in the back on that luxurious carpet all the way to Rupert, Idaho to go skiing with my cousins on the Snake River. It was all done at 55 MPH, too.

My Dad did similar in his F-250, but it was actually pretty decent. Piano hinged shelf so it could be folded back. Decent "pad". Both the truck and the shell had sliding windows so my Mom could pass my much younger baby sisters back to us older kids to take care of, or we could pass them back up front. Nothing like changing diapers on your baby siblings in the bed of a truck on the road to Flaming Gorge, hahahaha!

- DAA

 

[DAA]

Bunch of AARP members up in here.

Definitely a multi generational group. A lot of this stuff in this thread, was "after my time".

- DAA

 

[DAA]

Back in my day we played one pump in the field, but really pumped more than once so you'd shoot more accurate.

Oh man... We had some gnarly BB gun fights... No rules on how many pumps. We'd all bundle up in winter clothes in the middle of summer, like armor. Which worked, except then we were all trying for head shots. And I actually preferred the old Red Ryder. While some poor schmuck was loading and pumping his Crossman I was running by just peppering the eff out of him with the Red Ryder. One of our favorite places was a pasture with a tree with a tree fort in the middle of it. Guys would try and get up in that fort with their Crossman pump up rigs and snipe. Until, I figured out how to shoot through the doors and windows and bounce BB's off the ceiling. Only got to really do that once, the other kids caught on and we were all pouring BB's in at the same time. Kid was balling his eyes out begging to be let down. Nobody ever even tried to get up in there again after that...

- DAA

 

[jeeper]

I can't believe you guys got to have a shell! I remember one trip down I-15 where we hid under the piano we were hauling to get out of the freezing wind.

 

[Thursty]

When I was a kid, Mom & Dad and three kids piled into a ‘64 Chevy C-20 with a slide-in camper and spent spring break in Zion NP every year. By the time I was in 9th grade Dad had leveled up to a ‘79 Bronco with a built 460 and 40 gallon tank pulling a rented 24’ Terry camp trailer. That’s when I started equating headwinds with Sons a Bitches.

 

[Thursty]

View attachment 155702

When I bought this truck in high school it was 21 years old.

When I sold this truck in 2020 it was 21 years old. 😂

 

[Spork]

Bunch of AARP members up in here.

They have been trying to recruit me for at least 20 years. 😆

 

[Vonski]

Back in my day (July of ‘82 to be exact), I was 10 and camping in the family motorhome just down SandFlats Rd. from the Slickrock Trail. The folks had been doing this dirtbiking trip every July since ‘70 (two years before I was born) after learning of it’s creation in ‘69. Anyway, ‘82 was the last year my Dad, bros, and I could ride the original Slickrock Trail everyday for weeks and see almost nobody except a few Moab locals (same with Hells Revenge, Lion’s Back, and that whole area). The following year was when we saw the first versions of the mountain bike in small numbers.

*Had to edit the post when I remembered I had a sweet trucker hat, Izod shirt wearin’ pic from that same summer. For the m/c guys, that’s the first water cooled ‘82 yz80 that came out the previous fall. 🤘